Gore Meets With Labor Leaders on Peace Mission

Vice President Al Gore led a parade of Democratic politicians Monday on a peace mission to win back labor’s love lost over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Gore, White House adviser George Stephanopoulos and the top Democratic leaders of the House and Senate appeared individually before the AFL-CIO executive council, each preaching unity to a labor movement still licking its political wounds at the hands of a Democratic President and a Congress firmly in Democratic control.

After his meeting with the union leaders, Gore described the session as “good, candid and respectful” but acknowledged that the Administration and labor disagreed when it came to NAFTA.

The vice president made it clear that the Administration believes it could not win congressional passage of health care legislation without the help of the unions. He called labor’s support essential.

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said: “We are engaged in what I think is the most critical issue since the New Deal, the fight for health care reform.”

But the object of Monday’s meeting was post-NAFTA peace, and Gore spent much of his time meeting with union leaders to listen to their specific wants and needs.

The gathering of Democratic leaders was one of the strongest political showings in years at the annual midwinter meeting of labor’s top leaders. Dozens of candidates--from New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to California gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown--were working the hallways and meeting with labor’s political operatives to help boost election campaigns.

Also at the meeting, House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), in an effort to put teeth into NAFTA, said he will introduce legislation to impose goals and timetables on U.S. trading partners to ensure they meet labor and environmental standards.